Kremlin statement lands on extremist list

Russian justice officials tossed a Kremlin statement into the state registry of extremist materials. Source: Kommersant

2011 news release from then-president Dmritry Medvedev’s official website put on state registry of extremist materials.

Russian justice officials seem to
have displayed too much zeal this month, tossing a Kremlin statement into the
state registry of extremist materials and stirring up criticism that some of
the government’s anti-extremism efforts are misguided and ineffective.

The text in question is an August
2011 news release from the Russian president’s official website, reporting a
military honor conferred by then President Dmitry Medvedev on a special forces
brigade in southern Russia.

The news item was reprinted,
almost verbatim, by a newspaper called Radikalnaya Politika in its September
2011 issue, which was ruled extremist by a Siberian court last fall, according
to the Federal List of Extremist Materials posted on the Justice Ministry’s
website.

The Kremlin reprint, entitled
“Congratulations from the President,” was specifically named among the articles
in the offending issue, added to the Justice Ministry’s list on February 19,
according to Sova, a Moscow-based nongovernmental watchdog group that monitors
extremism and xenophobia.

Other materials in the issue
included headlines from major news agencies, a political flyer from the
historic Russian coup attempt of August 1991 and a smattering of articles from
Russia's famous Ogonyok magazine.

Theoretically, this means that all
online outlets displaying these materials must remove them. In the case of the
Medvedev news item, this would include the Russian president’s official
website, Kremlin.ru, and the ruling United Russia party’s website. Otherwise,
Russia's telecoms watchdog, Roskomnadzor, could demand the sites be shut down.

The Justice Ministry declined to
comment on the effectiveness of its list of extremist materials when contacted
by RIA Novosti on Thursday. The ministry said in a statement that it was
“obliged” to include materials deemed extremist by courts in the list.

A spokesperson for Roskomnadzor
had not responded to a query as to whether the Kremlin.ru or United Russia
websites would be ordered to remove Medvedev’s speech as of late Thursday
afternoon.

The editor of the Radikalnaya
Politika paper, Boris Stomakhin, was arrested late last year and charged with
publishing extremist material, including calls for terrorist acts. He is
currently awaiting trial.